Ringing in cancer

THOUGH reports linking brain, cancer to the use of mobile phones pushed down shares of US Cellular telephone companies, Japanese firms remain mostly unaffected. Tokyo stock market analysts explain this is because the Japanese have been inoculated by earlier reports of radioactive cellular phones.

Says Edward Staiano of Motorola, the world's largest manufacturer of cellular phones: "If we had any concern that they caused a health problem, we would stop selling them immediately." But those doubting corporate protests of public concern point out the cigarette industry has far greater cause for worry, but it has not stopped selling.